Friday, February 27, 2009

The Dodgers took a swipe at Boras in a strongly worded news release they issued Thursday night to report that the free-agent outfielder had rejected the two-year, $45-million offer the team made Wednesday.

That prompted a curious response from the Boras camp, which released a statement of its own saying that it was waiting for a response from the Dodgers about the two counterproposals it made Thursday, the most recent being for -- guess how much? -- $45 million over two years.

So why would Boras propose the very deal he rejected?

Did Boras turn down the offer and panic upon realizing that Ramirez had no other suitors? Or was the deal he was proposing a different one than the one Ramirez was offered Wednesday?

What isn't known is whether there are any other teams actively pursuing Ramirez.

What is known is that, according to sources with knowledge of the situation who weren't authorized to comment publicly on the matter, parts of Ramirez's salary would have been deferred under the Dodgers' proposal. The Dodgers offered Ramirez a deal that would've paid him $25 million this year and included a $20-million player option for 2010.

Boras wouldn't comment and directed questions to the Dodgers. What he did say was that he never rejected the Dodgers' offer.

"They asked me to respond to them and I gave them a counterproposal within the framework of the structure we had agreed upon," Boras said.

If it weren't for the subprime mortgage crisis, the stumbling waltz between the Dodgers and Scott Boras would be the most inept handling of a multi-million-dollar package in recent history. Is Boras panicky, or just lying? Is Frank McCourt overreacting, or just cheap? The likely answer is: all of the above. These buffoons deserve each other—when the Dodgers and Boras get together, drama follows. That the object of their attention is one of the most polarizing players in the game is just gravy on the cake. Fight on, you inglourious basterds!

Flanders offer is pretty shifty with so much deferred. I don't think I'm the only one who assumed Manny would get all his salary in the contract time. If anything maybe defer 5m to 2010 so it's 20m/25m. But hell, McCourt's just looking like a cheap bastard.